Wildbirds & Peacedrums tour North America and support women simultaneously

Wildbirds & Peacedrums are all about gender equality. In fact, some of their early tourdates were supporting such lovely ladies as St. Vincent and Lykke Li. Now that they’ve made a bit of a name for themselves, Wildbirds will be back on the road this spring in support of Rivers on Leaf, a double-release of two different five-song EPs entitled Retina and Iris, the former of which features the Cantorum Reykjavík Chamber Choir, as used by another very famous woman — Björk — on her album Medúlla. Yes, it may be April and women’s history month may be over, but there’s just no stopping Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ rampant support.

Kyle Bobby Dunn is a boring guy. So boring because he makes drone music. So boring because he was born in Canada. So boring because he’s been making the same music since he was 14. So boring that… I have to make him sound boring just to position myself as less boring. So boring, in fact, that he’s not really boring at all.

Ways of Meaning, KBD’s first release since 2010’s compilation A Young Person’s Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn, is sure to be a continuation of his “boring” aesthetic under the guise of some deep universal and philosophical understanding of something or another. The album will be dropping May 3 via Desire Path Recordings, this being his second release for the label. He also has a performance coming up on April 24 at the Manhattan venue Le Poisson Rouge.

That Julianna Barwick, she is a one-woman, voice-looping, song-constructing machine! The towering monuments of reverb-soaked vocals she creates, they are something else. Now now, my friend, I know you’ve heard her new album on Asthmatic Kitty, The Magic Place (TMT Review). But have you seen Julianna Barwick live?

Well, here’s your chance! Ms. Barwick, ever the go-getter, is going on a rather extensive North American and European tour this spring, running all the way into the summer. Hold on a second! It won’t just be Julianna Barwick, it won’t just be her at all! Many of these dates will also feature the talents of Okkervil River and Titus Andronicus, two fine bands of musical troubadours. Barwick! Okkervil! Andronicus! It’s the deal of the century!

How’s this for consistency: J. Rocc — member of “The World Famous” Beat Junkies DJ crew since the early 90s, winner of many a turntable battle — drops his first solo 12-inch single “Play This (One)” in 2003, then waits seven years to deliver his second single, “Play This Too,” which just happens to flow seamlessly from the last minute of the first single — DJ music for DJs, indeed. It’s this blend of craftsmanship and insanity that likely led to J. Rocc’s status as “Madlib’s DJ,” joining him on most shows (even in the days of Jaylib) and collaborating on some of the latest volumes of the Beat Konducta series. Now seems as good a time as any to declare “Dude can scratch!” and make everyone within earshot feel uncomfortable.

For all that time taken between singles, J. Rocc’s kept himself busy with countless DJ mixes (five volumes of the Taster’s Choice series, four volumes of Dilla tribute series Thank You Jay Dee) and collaborations with labels like Jazzman and Now-Again, but it’s only RIGHT NOW (well… YESTERDAY) that Some Cold Rock Stuf, the man’s debut album proper, is made available for the public. As Stones Throw explains on their website, this thing is “Not a mix tape. Not a DJ album. Not a beats album. It’s THE album.” For an album worthy of underlining a word to describe it, the label has spared no expense in the packaging department; available as a 2-CD set or a triple-vinyl monster with double-sided poster and sticker sheet, each copy has one of its discs ominously labeled “Mystery Disc,” of which there are three different possibilities. It’s like those 25-cent machines that don’t tell you what’s inside, and you think it might be a really nice watch but it ends up being just another “sticky hand” that gets dust and hair on it on the drive home. Except any given “Mystery Disc” is likely to be closer to getting the watch.

To celebrate the album’s release, J. Rocc is going ahead with a Japan tour that was scheduled before the disaster, with 100% of the tour’s profits now going to the Red Cross. That tour’s almost over, but a sprinkling of European dates will follow shortly after, and everyone knows you don’t have to speak the language to rock the crowd (though I’m guessing bands like The Hold Steady are still having troubles with that). Check the dates below, and find musical relief when you apply Some Cold Rock Stuf to your most sensitive areas.

Washington, DC’s Title Tracks, featuring John Davis (formerly of Q and Not U) and Georgia James, will release In Blank on April 19 on Ernest Jenning Record Co. To be sure, the irony is not lost on all of us; there is no “In Blank” track on the album. Yeah, no title track. It’s similar to the same pigeonholing that occurred with the bands The Skits, The Introductions, and The Backmaskers. Choose your band names wisely, folks.

Despite the dwindling expectations of a literalist, Title Tracks will tour Europe in an attempt to play music.

As we all know from his days as a solo artist before fronting the Ric Ocasek-less “The New Cars” that’ve been touring around and shilling Cars songs for the past several years, songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Rundgren doesn’t want to work. He just wants to bang on the drum all day! Well, be careful what you wish for, Mr. Rundgren. You just might get it. According to Brooklyn Vegan, Ric Ocasek is back with his old band The Cars (the still-living ones, anyway) for a brand new album and US summer tour, thus rendering The New Cars kind of redundant and sending Rundgren back to his day job of MAKING GAZILLIONS ON LICENSING DEALS.

The sort-of-semi-reunion was conceived organically, according to Ocasek, who realized while he was writing new material in 2009 that all of his Cars-like songs would probably sound even better if they were played by The Cars. “It totally clicked immediately,” he says. “Everybody got right into it, as if we had never stopped playing. After two days I thought, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be cool.’” The fruit of these ‘cool’ labors, entitled Move Like This, will mark the first official Cars album in 24 years and is due May 10 via Hear Music (duh) and Concord Music Group.

“We tried hard to keep it from just being a nostalgia thing,” Keyboardist Greg Hawkes says of the album. “We definitely wanted to bring a modern slant to it.” Translation: when the Cars tour this spring, you’re going to have to put up with a bunch of new shit while you’re waiting for “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” Fuck, I hope The New Cars reunite soon.